(as seen in the Human Weapon clip, although I think Human Weapon "fights" are always watered down so not to injure the hosts).

To say the least!

They put up a guy who's been a professional MMA fighter at the international level for 11 years and who claims to have 15 years of training, against a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed 18 year-old kid who's been doing Sanda for 3 years.

If they put Chambers against any of the Sanshou / Sanda coaches from that same episode, or against any Sanshou / Sanda fighter with 11 years of professional experience, the episode would have had a much different (and much quicker) ending.

Which is presumptuous on the show's part. Chambers isn't going to restrict himself to only the Sanda he's learned. He even used a Sanda leg sweep against his Pradal Serey opponent. I'd have enjoyed the show more if he fought against someone with similar experience, instead I found it just to be more television drivel.

Which is presumptuous on the show's part. Chambers isn't going to restrict himself to only the Sanda he's learned. He even used a Sanda leg sweep against his Pradal Serey opponent. I'd have enjoyed the show more if he fought against someone with similar experience, instead I found it just to be more television drivel.

Was Fight Quest any different or more of the same?

In the Fight Quest episode, they put their stronger, more experienced guy with actual martial arts training and experience in (as opposed to the rookie boxer who can't kick, clinch or grapple).

As entertaining as I find these shows, I do find them to be borderline insulting. The message is always along the lines of here is the extremely long and rich history of this martial art, and here is all the sacrificing and grueling training that its most devoted practitioners take on to become proficient at it . . . and, after a couple of days of basic training, I'm gonna take on one of the said devoted practitioners to see if I can take him. Then they pit the host / star against an opponent that is either a noob or is a retired fighter who, in any case, winds up going EXTREMELY easy on him.

Let's not kid ourselves. Eh Phutong would have MURDERED Jason Chambers in a real Pradal Serey match. It looked pretty obvious to me that he was going VERY easy on Chambers.

Some guys give the hosts / stars a harder time than others but, in most cases, it's a demonstration match; not a competitive match.

The thought that a guy with 5 days of basic training in Pradal Serey, Kyokushin, Muay Thai, Sansou/Sanda (etc) could walk away in such good shape after a REAL fight with any of these styles' top fighters is laughable at best.

Not to mention that in one of the shows' episodes (I forget if it was HW or FQ) about Savate, one of the guys says I promised my brother I wouldn't get my ass kicked in France.

How insulting is that? You come into someone's home to ask them to teach you everything they know about their craft and to give you opportunities most martial artists only dream of, and you wind up making fun of their culture based on outdated and offensive stereotypes. That's hardly something you'd expect from a respectful martial artist. Weaksauce.

I'm necro-ing this thread because I've found a new interesting striking school in Ottawa.

Before that, a few updates on some of the previously-mentioned schools:

Not long after I had completed the introductory Sanshou/MMA course at Wu-Tan Canada, I had signed up for more of their courses and wound up training most often at their Algonquin College location. Without getting into the details, I'll simply say that what someone had already posted in this thread is essentially correct: Wu-Tan Canada is a traditional Chinese martial arts school; not a combat sports / competitive fighting school. It's great for people who want to learn traditional Chinese martial arts (including weapons) and maybe pick up some basic boxing / kickboxing techniques on the side but it's not ideal for someone who wants to concentrate on full-contact fighting or competitive combat sports. Don't get me wrong; some of their instructors and senior students can and have won their fair share of organized kickboxing and sanshou fights. It's just that they are exceptions rather than the rule. The school's emphasis is traditional Kung-Fu; not competitive combat sports.

After that, I trained off and on for a while at Kyokushin Ottawa and really loved it. Unfortunately, I was doing a lot of business travel for a while and therefore it didn't make sense for me to maintain my membership there. That being said, I would certainly go back without a second thought! Don't hesitate to try it out, folks. There isn't as much sparring as at most Muay Thai schools I've trained at but the quality of the instruction and the intensity of the workouts were, for me, good enough to make up for it. Sparring is usually under Kyokushin rules (bareknuckle, no punches to the head / face) but I get the impression that they might have added K-1 style sparring since I left because I've recently seen pics of them sparring with MMA gloves and shinguards. Equipment is basic but adequate: focus mitts, Thai pads, kicking shield.

Anyway, back on the topic of a new, interesting sparring school in Ottawa, look at what I found on Kijiji: